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HelpRe: How to pronounce ..........?
in reply to a message by Array
No problem. I wasn't sure if I expressed myself well at all, but I'm glad it made sense to you. I like the difference between Don and Dawn, I'm going to stick with it.
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Don v Dawn
Like Array said, that difference is disappearing. The Dawn sound is still more prevalent in New Jersey or New York, but even as east as Pennsylvania, where I am, we prn Dawn as Don.
Like Array said, that difference is disappearing. The Dawn sound is still more prevalent in New Jersey or New York, but even as east as Pennsylvania, where I am, we prn Dawn as Don.
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The geographic distribution of the ah/aw merger is not a simple "east vs. west" one. Evidently the Pittsburgh area of Pennsylvania was one of the first places in the country to lose the distinction. The following map shows that most of the USA west of the Missouri has lost it, but so has western Pennsylvania, most of West Virginia, and northern New England. Most of my students in Omaha, which is on the eastern edge of Nebraska, still seem to make the distinction, but the western half of Nebraska has lost it, according to the map:
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/maps/Map1.html
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/maps/Map1.html
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